For as much talk as there is about dominant bucks, we really spend surprisingly little time going into any details on dominance within the buck world. Well, that’s about to change! Let’s get deep into the weeds on dominance in the buck world.
This is Chapter 7 of Steve Bartylla’s free online book, Understanding Mature Bucks.
I look at dominance within the buck hierarchy as a pyramid, with THE dominant buck in that area making up the peak. Each level below him, the numbers occupying that next lower rung of the pyramid ladder are greater. They’re generally submissive to the bucks above them, equal to those on their level and dominate the bucks below them. Because of that, pitifully few mature bucks are truly dominant (as there can only be one) or truly submissive. Instead, the majority of mature bucks are dominant over the younger bucks and maybe some their own age or older, yet are also submissive to some of the other mature bucks, if you follow.
As mentioned, each area can only have truly one dominant buck for much of fall. The outcomes are actually pretty cut and dry, really. They’re going to posture and/or fight until one of them submits to a subservient role (as seen in their body language/submissive posture), stays out of the overlapping area in home ranges (leaves that area) or is killed. Buck fights are nasty. Repeated buck fights are typically deadly sooner or later in the year.
As mentioned the other day, a lot of time we believe the bucks are coming back for the start of the rut, but it’s actually usually linked to relocation behavior from pecking order scrums. When a buck gets his butt handed to him by a more dominant buck, he will move/transition between his summer range and his early autumn range. They got driven out of where they were and are relocating back because they have a higher hole they can fill there in that area’s dominance structure.
I’ve seen this in management literally countless times. You’ve got a beautiful 3.5-year-old buck hanging in one area all summer and all the way up until mid-October. It’s Oct. 12 and the last pictures of him I get are with a couple broken tines. That 5.5-year-old buck that had been hanging with or in the same general area as the young stud has suddenly decided that the youngster isn’t laying low enough for his tastes. The youngster is seemingly feeling the drive to dominate, but just doesn’t have the body and experience to pull it off yet. He gets beat up, shifts over to the neighbor’s property, where he is the man, and they tag him the first chance they get, which is 100% their right. The next time you see that 3.5-year-old stud is in a text or the back of the neighbor’s truck. They’d never seen the buck before shooting him.
As I said and sincerely mean, that neighbor has every right in the world to tag that buck and deserves absolutely nothing from us other than a heartfelt congrats! If we’re going to expect to be left alone to do what we legally want on our side of the fence, we dang well better respect the neighbor’s right to do the exact same!
The reason I shared that is to merely show how it plays out in nature. Bucks are grouped up, often starting in winter and on through until early fall. Sure, they generally stop truly hanging with each other in August or September, but they continue tolerating each other, seemingly just fine, until those testosterone levels truly start rising. At that point, the youngsters tend to get a bit too cocky and Mr. Big starts getting grouchy.
In the Midwest and points north, it’s really mid-October when the dominance can turn violent. Those bucks that have been trying to decide who dominates who generally decide it with one good fight. If the loser doesn’t want to submit, they most often shift to a different area within their home range, where they either can dominate or at least occupy a higher rung on the dominance ladder.
That right there is a good glimpse into why we can only generally hold so many bucks on a specific chunk of dirt, no matter how good the habitat is. Eventually, the stress levels get to be too much for those driven to dominate, and they move from areas of higher concentrations of competing bucks to areas of lower concentrations, within their home range.
Now, most home ranges for mature bucks living in high-quality habitat is 640 acres or less of total area. That said, this isn’t a nice square mile. Instead, picture a python that has swallowed a random combo of volleyballs, medicine balls and a small, electric car or two, in no particular order, and freeze his squirming at any given moment. That snapshot right there is going to be far more accurate at revealing a more typical 640-acre home range than any standard shape we’ll ever picture. Those ranges have all sorts bulges, narrows, twists and stretches, making those 640 total acres actually snake across many miles of habitat. Now, we can do things to get Mr. Big to spend way more time here than anywhere else in his home range, but that isn’t going to change his home range size often, if ever.
As it applies to dominance, the point is that these shifting bucks have a lot of areas to choose that aren’t on your dirt. So, when five great bucks have their summer range on your 80, expect them to disperse, hopefully hanging onto one or two of them, but any can show back up during the rut looking for does. That ground they inhabit in the summer is part of their home range.
READ: HOW TO PATTERN A MATURE BUCK
At the same time, if you know there are mature bucks in the general area, if they aren’t on your property over summer, don’t get too concerned, particularly if they have a history of showing up around a certain time each year. Odds are extremely good they will again this fall, and the fall after and after and after, unless you or someone else does something pretty drastic to change it. We’ll get into dominance more yet, but that’s really what one is most often seeing playing out in this fall shuffle of bucks.
To wrap up with an interesting side note, remember me telling you how often I’ve seen dominance play out with the neighbors shooting young studs? What literally blows my mind every time I see it is how fast those same bucks that were driven out move right back in, as soon as Mr. Big is arrowed. I’m talking within a day or two, a surprising percentage of the time, but generally within a week. If not one of the young studs, then another mature buck shifts into the removed one’s slot. The struggle for dominance is a constant battle for mature bucks that want it.
Read Chapter 1: Whitetail Tendencies
Read Chapter 2: Whitetail Home Ranges
Read Chapter 3: How Deer Use Core Areas
Read Chapter 4: When Core Areas Shift
Read Chapter 5: Seasonal Shifts
Read Chapter 6: Family Group Dominance
